Sydney Silverman

Samuel Sydney Silverman (8 October 1895 – 9 February 1968) was a British Labour Party politician. An opponent of capital punishment, he proposed multiple Private Members' Bills against the Death penalty in the UK. The last of these, which became the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, eventually achieved his objective.

1935–1939
I am bound to say that, listening to the jibes during the past week and coming here for the first time straight from the open air and light which seem to come so rarely in this Chamber, either physically or otherwise, I felt a sense of deepening gloom as speaker after speaker from the Government Benches, beginning with the Prime Minister, made speech after speech the burden of which was, so far as I could see, purely a confession of impotence—they could not do anything, this course will not do, that measure will not do, no grand schemes will be of any effect and no particular schemes are worth pressing very hard.
 * It seems to me that this problem of the distressed areas cannot be dealt with as though it were a problem existing by itself and divorced from the whole of the economic and social complex of affairs out of which it arises. I have heard during this Debate and during the Debates that have preceded it in the past week many gibes at this party because, as was alleged, it has refrained from endeavouring to apply its Socialistic faith to the problems that we were discussing. Therefore, I hope the House will not think me too doctrinaire or dogmatic if I endeavour to say how, in my view, those Socialistic ideas and principles, for which I and my friends stand and work, are the only principles which have any relevance to the problems which the House is discussing on this Motion.
 * It is no accident that the distressed areas we are discussing are the very areas which, in the past, have contributed most to the prosperity of this country and to its achievements all over the world. The hon. Member for East Aberdeen was right when he said that we must pay people to eat. I would invite him to go further and say that we must learn how to pay people not to work. Only in that way can we use that dividend of civilisation in the interests of the community which has achieved those things.
 * From a speech in a debate on "Distressed Areas", House of Commons Hansard (11 December 1935), volume 307, cc. 991-1049, column 1023.
 * The honourable member for East Aberdeen (actually Aberdeen and Kincardine East) was Bob Boothby


 * I think it is true to say that the people of this country have no enthusiasm for this or for any war, but they would not be willing, in the main, now that the war has started, to let it end on such terms as would restore the world to the position in which it was —or to anything like that position— before we started. It was a position in which we were continually stumbling along from one crisis to the next, never knowing what was to happen, and without any kind of order, stability or security. I think the people of this country would not go back to that now, and that they are prepared to fight until some kind of order, based on stability and justice can be secured.
 * It may be that you hold the view that no kind of peace is possible unless the Nazi regime in Germany is removed. If that is one of the things you regard as essential, say so by all means; but do not stop there. You have to say what you would do then. Suppose that the Nazi regime went, suppose that the abnoxious individual went, what then would you propose?
 * It is possible that the war might go on for many years before we got peace. You could create a European desert and call it peace, and give it the permanence of the grave. The objects that we regard as essential for the maintenance of civilisation may require a long war. If so, we should not be afraid of it. But neither should we assume that that is going to be necessary. Now, while people are in the mood to talk, talk to them. It is not necessary to talk on their terms; but if you tell them what are your terms and invite them to talk on your basis, you take the initiative out of their hands, you take the leadership, and perhaps you do something to acquire a long-wanted diplomatic success for ourselves.
 * From a speech in a debate "War Situation", House of Commons Hansard (3 October 1939), vol 351 cc. 1855-922, column 1920
 * The prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, had declared war on Germany in a radio announcement on 3 September 1939.

1940–1968
Above all these things, there is the sense which we all have that this penalty, of itself, denies the very principle on which we claim the right to inflict it—namely, the sanctity of human life.
 * I would just summarise, very shortly, the qualities and aspects of this penalty which make it to all of us a revolting and barbaric thing. It is hot only the melodrama and sensationalism with which these proceedings are surrounded; it is not only the sordid squalor, every detail of which spreads into the newspapers in every one of these crimes, and whose effect on juvenile delinquency has never been measured but must be very considerable; it is not only the relentless finality of this penalty, the relentless finality which makes this result that once it has been inflicted there is no room for rectification if there were error or miscarriage of justice. No one who knows the records can doubt that there have been cases of error, that there have been miscarriages of justice, and that innocent men have in fact been executed.
 * Speech in a debate "New Clause (Suspension of death penalty)", House of Commons Hansard (14 April 1948) vol. 449 cc. 979-1098, 980

Quotes about Silverman
As a parliamentarian, he was totally dedicated, and therefore dominating. As a politician, he was uncompromising and vehement in saying what he had to say—often a superbly lucid crystallisation of what others had been trying to present Nobody could put a lawyer's training in argument and grasp of essentials to better parliamentary use, but where Silverman differed from many Commons lawyers was that, when he reached the heart of the matter, it invariably had a heart. It also had sense, and a solid backing of relevant fact. He was a somewhat pompous figure but, in his case, this was accepted as a virtue. Pomposity is one of the first things to be laughed at in the Commons, but one would have to search far back in one's memory to recall anybody laughing at Sydney Silverman. Physically he was tiny; his shoes, as he sat on his familiar front bench below the gangway, scarcely touched the carpet. If he had been a Minister, there would have been no point in his trying to put his feet on the table in the orthodox manner of nonchalance. But his dignity was unassailable. and nonchalance, was not part of sis nature. He was one of the few remaining backbenchers, who could put many Ministers and Shadow Ministers utterly in the shade.
 * Sydney Silverman will be remembered as one of the great backbenchers of the House of Commons. The respect he commanded, even among those who bitterly opposed his views, was total.
 * Comments by Norman Shrapnel, parliamentary correspondent, in the obituary of "Mr S. Silverman", The Guardian (10 February 1968), p. 2.